


moon blood

by totallyunrelated



Series: awkward conversations with aang and zuko [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, clueless baby aang, zuko explains monthly bleeding to aang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:34:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25710694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/totallyunrelated/pseuds/totallyunrelated
Summary: Aang is confused about what 'monthly bleeding' is, and, of course, goes to Zuko for an explanation.
Relationships: Aang & Katara (Avatar), Aang & Zuko (Avatar), Aang/Katara (Avatar)
Series: awkward conversations with aang and zuko [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1864663
Comments: 18
Kudos: 260





	moon blood

“KATARA!”

Aang’s panicked voice had her shooting out of her sleeping bag, blinking the sleep out of her eyes as she dropped into a waterbending form, the water from her pouch already in her hands. “What? What is it?”

_ It is  _ way  _ too early for this, _ she thought, stifling a yawn, though the past year of travelling with the Avatar really should have taught her that there was no set “time” for enemies to ambush them and attempt to kill them. She really, really wished that they could have a normal sleeping schedule just  _ once,  _ though, and not be rudely woken up by whatever had decided to attack them that day. Still yawning, she looked around in confusion for the attacker, but there was no one else in sight.

“You’re hurt!” said Aang in alarm, moving toward her frantically.

“What? No, I’m not.” Returning the water to her pouch, she looked down at herself, confused, and was unpleasantly surprised to see the large bloodstain covering her lower body. Flopping back on her sleeping bag - which was  _ also  _ stained with blood, great - she groaned and slapped a hand over her face. “ _ Really?  _ Right now?” she muttered under her breath.

“Katara, come on, you have to heal yourself!” Aang pulled at her arm, his worried face appearing in her vision.

“No, I don’t. There’s nothing wrong with me,” she muttered, wishing he would just leave the subject alone. But he was persistent, poking and prodding at her until she gave up and sat up.

“What do you mean there’s nothing wrong? There’s blood all over you! You must have gotten hurt, maybe it’s the adrenaline, or you have internal bleeding, but it looks really serious and-”

“Aang,  _ I’m  _ the healer here,” Katara interrupted, annoyance leaking into her tone. “I think I would know if I was hurt. Just leave it.”

Another time, Katara would have found it endearing that Aang was so concerned for her, but now she was just embarrassed and wanted to be left alone. She didn’t want to snap at him, since she knew he was only nagging out of concern for her, but she  _ really  _ did not want to be in this situation right now, especially since she was only half-awake.

“But, but you’re covered in blood!” he protested. He was clearly not leaving until she told him what the matter was.

“It’s just my monthly bleeding,” she said, harsher than she had meant to. She regretted it when she saw the hurt and confusion on his face. “I’ll be okay. This is normal,” she added, trying to soften her tone.

He opened his mouth to reply, but she had already turned away, closing her eyes, and he seemed to accept that she wanted to be left alone. “Okay. If you’re sure,” he said doubtfully, but rose and walked away regardless of his worries. She let out a sigh of relief.

For a while longer she lay unmoving in her sleeping bag, knowing she had to get up and clean herself off sooner or later but also unwilling to move. She thanked the spirits that only Aang had seen her; Sokka and Suki had left to spend some  _ private  _ time together under the guise of finding food, Toph had gone somewhere to practice her earthbending and Zuko was presumably still asleep. Speaking of which, she should probably get a move on before Zuko woke up. With a groan, she dragged herself to her feet, making an annoyed face at the stickiness of her clothes due to the blood, and headed for the river. All the while she was aware of Aang’s hovering presence.

At the lagoon near their campsite she stripped down to her undergarments and unceremoniously dumped both her clothes and her sleeping bag into the water, scrubbing them until the water turned pink. She could have used her bending and bent the blood straight out of them, but she was feeling like doing a bit of menial labour today. Once that was done, she bent the water out of the soaked fabric so that she didn’t have to wait for them to dry, and laid them out on the shore, before wading in herself. The water was cold, but she’d lived in the South Pole for most of her life; this was like summer to her.

She swam out, deeper into the lagoon, and found a relatively isolated cave near the waterfall. The thundering sound of the water masked everything else and for a while she just basked in the peace, letting herself float and idly bending the water into different shapes for her own amusement. Though she loved all her friends, it was always nice to have some quiet time to herself, where she could just be  _ Katara,  _ with no constant need to look out for the others. 

She winced as her abdomen throbbed, hissing quietly. She’d never really had it as bad as some of the other women in her tribe did, but every once in a while monthly bleedings would bring pain. Gran-Gran had said it was normal, that she was even one of the lucky ones. She didn’t doubt that, but even the small pains were annoying and inconvenient at best. Thinking of all the cloth she’d need - that they didn’t have to spare - over the next week, she sighed out loud, rubbing her eyes. Then a thought occurred to her.

What if she could bend all the blood straight out of her body? She wouldn’t need to worry about it then...right?

Hoisting herself onto a nearby ledge, she lay flat on her back, hands over her stomach, and closed her eyes. Concentrating, she could feel the liquid flowing through her body, and though it scared her, it also awed her. She followed the liquid dripping out of her body to its source, and exhaled. She hesitated. What if she did irreparable harm to her body? What if it somehow went wrong, and she died here in this cave where no one would find her? She pushed the thoughts away. If she didn’t at least try, she would have to live with the inconvenience for at least a week, and who knew when they would find a good water source again? And no matter how wrong it went, she wouldn’t die...right?

Mind made up, she rested her hands above her stomach, focusing on the pool of blood inside her, and pushed. It flowed out of her steadily - it was quite a strange feeling, really, almost like she was relieving herself - and she ordered herself to breathe, in, out, in, out, until it was all gone. She blinked her eyes open, letting out a relieved sigh. She’d actually done it! Pride sparked through her. Hama had been wrong, after all. Bloodbending could be bad, but it could also be used in good ways. She resolved to change the legacy of bloodbending, already thinking of new ways it could be implemented in healing techniques.

“Zuko?”

Zuko cracked an eye open at Aang’s voice. He didn’t sound frightened, or alarmed, or panicked, so Zuko took that as a sign that everything was okay, they weren’t being attacked, and he could go back to sleep. But just when he’d closed his eye, Aang came closer and shook his shoulder persistently. He groaned.

“What is it?”

“I need to ask you something,” said Aang, and he sounded so wretched, so nervous that Zuko actually sat up, stifling a yawn. He was alert in seconds, though; that was one thing exile had instilled in him.

“Okay.” He took this as a good sign of progress: though everyone had warmed up to him, even Katara after their trip to hunt her mother’s killer, he was often unsure of whether he really belonged amongst them, whether they really saw him as a friend or just a means to an end.

“What’s a monthly bleeding?”

Zuko froze.  _ This  _ cannot  _ be happening, _ he thought in dawning horror. He had assumed that after their awkward conversation about sex a few weeks prior, he would never again have to do something like that, but lo and behold, here he was again. Just. Great. He would never again even  _ think  _ that his life was going great, because apparently the spirits loved their karma.

“Uh,” was his eloquent response. “Can I ask why you want to know?” He did  _ not,  _ in fact, want to know, but this was the only way he could think to stall until he could come up with an escape plan. So far, he had nothing except  _ knock him out and make a run for it,  _ which did not seem like a good plan if he wanted the others to keep trusting him.

Aang fiddled with his fingers. “Well, I woke up to find Katara covered in blood, so naturally I assumed she was hurt, but she brushed it off and said she was fine, got mad at me and told me it was only her monthly bleeding. Only I don’t know what a monthly bleeding is.”

_ Resist, _ Zuko told himself sternly as Aang turned puppy eyes on him.  _ Do not - oh, for Spirits’ sake.  _ He squinted off into the distance, praying that someone,  _ anyone,  _ would show up and save him from this conversation. 

“I think that’s something you should ask Suki,” he said to Aang, trying to dissuade him. Obviously, it did not work.

“But Suki and Sokka are off on a fishing trip, and I don’t know when they’ll be back, and Katara is mad at me, and I really need to know now,” whined Aang. Zuko had no idea why he ever thought this kid was a threat. He looked up at Zuko. “She said it’s normal, but if it’s that normal, why don’t  _ I  _ have it?”

This, at least, was a question he could answer without too much discomfort. “Because only girls have it.” He’d been hoping Aang would drop the topic after that, but of course he didn’t. Rather, he just grew more curious.

“But why?”

Zuko could, of course, just blow him off and say  _ I don’t know,  _ but he had come to them promising himself he would only be honest and though nobody would blame him for this, he didn’t really want to lie now, though it was over something very inconsequential. So he sighed and resigned himself to another very uncomfortable conversation, wishing he was an earthbender so he could make the ground swallow him up.

“Girls’ bodies are different from ours.”

Aang just stared, not understanding. Zuko sighed for the umpteenth time. “Girls can get pregnant, but boys can’t. Their bodies have a special place for babies to grow, and every month they prepare to welcome a baby, but if there isn’t a baby, the lining is shed. That’s what the bleeding is.” His face was tomato red after he finished the explanation, but Aang just seemed to find it fascinating.

“That’s pretty cool!” he said. “How do you know all this, Zuko?”

Zuko shrugged. “I was taught. All Fire Nation children have to learn basic anatomy and biology in school.”

“Oh.” Aang seemed to think about this, and his face suddenly turned a little sad. Before Zuko could comment on it, though, he was hugging him, pulling back before Zuko could reciprocate, still stunned. He wasn’t used to physical affection, had been without it since - well, ever since his mother disappeared, and after that he’d forcefully pushed his uncle away. Guilt ate away at him.

“Thank you,” said Aang. “You’ve been a great help, Zuko.” And with a smile, he was bounding away to spirits-knew-where.

Once he was sure Aang was out of earshot, Zuko laid back and groaned aloud.  _ Why _ did it always have to be him?


End file.
